The Chaghatay Turkic is a historical period of the Turkic written language. This written language, named after the second son of the Mongol Emperor Genghis Khan, Chaghatay, continued from the 15th to the early 20th century. The most important representative of this written language is Alisher Nava’i. Although controversial within the Turcology literature, terms such as “Chaghatay language” and “Chaghatay” (used for the first time by Ármin Vámbéry) are generally accepted. The term Chaghatay, preferred over “Eastern Turkic,” describes the Central Asian written language. In Soviet Turcology, the term “Old Uzbek” was used instead of Chaghatay. However, Alisher Nava’i, named the language he used as “Turkish.” Turkish literature researcher Fuat Köprülü classified the periods of Chaghatay as follows: 1) Early Chaghatay [13–14th centuries], 2) Preclassical Chaghatay [first half of the 15th century], 3) Classical Chaghatay [second half of the 15th century], 4) Maintenance of Classical Chaghatay [16th century], and 5) Downfall [17th–19th centuries]. However, Hungarian Turcologist Janos Eckmann, divided Chaghatay into three periods: 1) Preclassical period, 2) Classical period, and 3) Postclassical period.

Chaghatay literary works are found in various libraries globally. A number of these works are printed; however, a majority of them are manuscripts. Manuscripts have the feature of preserving the cultural heritage of a document. Manuscripts preserve the primary source documents of many current disciplines, such as history, literature, medicine, and astronomy. They indicate the transformations in the respective language throughout the historical process. The Kazakhstan National Library contains both rare and manuscript documents. The Kazakhstan National Library was established on December 31, 1910, in the city of Almaty. It was formerly named as Verni, and it was opened to the general public on March 6, 1911. The Presidency of the Central Executive Committee of the Kazakh Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic named the library the Kazakh Public Library (with a regulation) on March 12, 1931. In 1937, on the 100th anniversary of his death, the library was named after the famous Russian writer Alexander Pushkin. On December 9, 1991, the name of the library was changed to the Kazakhstan National Library. The rare books and manuscripts department of the library consists of more than 30,000 documents and works. There are over 1,000 manuscripts in various languages, such as Russian, Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Chaghatay. Copies of the works of authors such as Khoja Akhmet Yassawi and Alisher Nava’i are prevalent. The library contains a vast collection of rare printed works. There are approximately 1,500 Kazakh books published in Arabic letters between 1841 and 1932 in the rare books and manuscripts department. The library also contains the first examples of Kazakh periodicals such as Kazakh, Aykap, Sadak; Russian manuscripts about Kazakhstan; rare works in Russian; rare works in Turkic languages (such as Kyrgyz, Tatar, and Uzbek); and microfilms. A catalog of rare Chaghatay and Ottoman Turkic works was previously prepared by Kabadayı and Shadkam in 2021. The project, “Catalogue of Rare Books in Turkic with Arabic Letters in the National Library of Kazakhstan” was supported by the Akhmet Yassawi University Eurasia Research Institute. Manuscripts could not be included in this catalog due to objections from the library management. There is no catalog of the Chaghatay manuscripts in the Kazakhstan National Library. Consequently, this article analyzes the Chaghatay manuscripts within the Kazakhstan National Library. The majority of these manuscripts are from the 18th or 19th centuries.

In this article, the catalog information of 30 Chaghatay manuscripts registered in the rare books and manuscripts department of the Kazakhstan National Library is provided. These works will be briefly introduced. Chaghatay manuscripts in the Kazakhstan National Library can be classified as religious and sufistic works, literary works, historical works, and scientific works according to their types. The majority of the manuscripts maintain the linguistic features of the late Chaghatay period. This study intends to guide researchers studying the works of the Chaghatay period in Turkestan.